Awake in the World Podcast

In this Awake in the World podcast episode Michael talks about the similarities between mindfulness and homecoming. Recorded December 8, 2009.

In this Awake in the World podcast episode Michael asks “What are you committed to?” He discusses the relationship between restraint and samadhi, as well as ethics, karma and the importance of taking action. Recorded on December 8, 2007.

In this Awake in the World podcast episode Michael considers how we tease out the parts of practice that are evolving and changeable versus the parts that are non-negotiable if we want to decrease suffering for ourselves and others. Recorded December 7, 2007

This week we're revisiting a favourite Awake in the World podcast episode. Michael explores how mindfulness and meditation practice can heal shame and trauma and how these symptoms manifest in relationship. Recorded on November 20 2016. Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

In this Awake in the World podcast episode Michael continues his discussion of The Five Powers of the Mind and offers some thoughts on tradition and yoga, the interpretation of the word faith, ethics, and self-care. Recorded August 14, 2009.

In this Awake in the World podcast episode Michael discusses Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras with an emphasis on The Five Powers of the Mind (outlined in the first pada, line 20). Recorded August 14, 2009.

In this Awake in the World podcast episode Michael explains the meaning of taking refuge in Prajna Paramita (your heart), and your capacity to embrace your aliveness without being sidetracked by your storyteller. Recorded April 28, 2009.

In this Awake in the World podcast episode Michael considers the question: “If the boundaries of your self are conditioned and changeable, how do you know if you’ve stretched too far?” How do we balance the importance of boundaries and self-care against the need to be open, responsive, and flexible. Michael argues that you can’t have fluidity without boundaries, and discusses Shunryu Suzuki’s asse...

This week we're revisiting a favorite Awake in the World podcast episode. In this talk, Michael describes the Buddha's death and discusses the Zen koan "Oak Tree in the Garden," meditation practice, and the politics of love. Recorded at True North Insight in Ontario on April 19, 2014.

This week we're revisiting a favorite Awake in the World podcast episode. In this talk, Michael uses the teachings on emptiness to work with the body. He calls sitting "physical practice" and he describes yoga as "psychological practice." Recorded at True North Insight in Ontario on April 18, 2014.

This week we're revisiting a favorite Awake in the World podcast episode. In this talk, Michael discusses the Avatamsaka Sutra (The Flower Garland Sutra) and seeing everything as medicine. Meditation teaches us how to practice intimacy, even with old wounds. Recorded on a silent retreat at True North Insight, Ontario on April 17, 2014.

This week we're revisiting a favourite Awake in the World podcast episode. In this dharma talk, Michael talks about a Zen Master called Bird's Nest Roshi who would go out on a limb and meditate in an abandoned bird's nest. Living in the world, ignoring death, trying to make impermanence permanent, avoiding loss and suffering... What we do with our deep grooves is more dangerous than going out on a...

This week we're revisiting a favourite Awake in the World podcast episode. In this talk, Michael reflects on God, gratitude, mind, compassionate action, and the encounter between what can and can't be talked about. Recorded at a retreat co-taught by Michael Stone and Rabbi Miriam Margles in Quebec in November 2013.

In this Awake in the World podcast episode, Michael references the Middle-Length Discourses of the Buddha, reads a koan from The Book of Serenity, and explores how Buddhist practice is radically simple and relates to the whole of our lives. Recorded April 26, 2010.

In this 30-minute guided meditation, Michael explores how to work with thoughts during sitting practice, focusing on the breath in a way that reduces clinging, reduces rejection. The breath doesn’t decide good or bad: it is kind to our body, our nervous system, our habits. Recorded April 23, 2010

In this Awake in the World podcast episode Michael elucidates the “post-negation” part of the Heart Sutra, particularly the lines “with no hindrance in the mind. No hindrance, therefore no fear.” He characterizes hindrances as ​walls of the mind a​nd describes creating a “no landing zone.” In addition he talks about “horizontal transcendence,” “knotty” thoughts, and making peace with the fears tha...

In this Awake in the World podcast episode Michael explores the “negation section” of the Heart Sutra (no eye, no ear, no nose, no tongue...) and how the story-telling and I-making functions of the mind contract and cling, leading us away from intimacy. Drawing on poems by John Cage and Jack Gilbert he describes the dependent-origination of the self, our tendency to create metaphysical frames, and...

In this Awake in the World podcast episode Michael unpacks part of the second pada of the Yoga Sutra (2.29 - 2.39) with an emphasis on wholesome thoughts, the yamas, the cure for nihilism, and the importance of not separating inward-directed psychological work from outward-directed activism. Recorded April 20, 2007.

In this Awake in the World podcast episode, Michael emphasizes the need to view yoga as a living tradition that is relevant and useful in our contemporary lives. He discusses faith versus fundamentalism, the centrality of karma, how asana fits into the picture, and the mistake of interpreting “oneness” as “sameness.” Recorded in 2007.

In this podcast episode, Michael discusses the relationship between awareness and morality or mindfulness and ethics. When we are faced with the unprecedented and unrepeatable complexities of this moment, the question is not, “What is the right thing to do?” but “What is the compassionate thing to do?” This question can be approached with integrity but not with certainty. Recorded in 2011.

In this podcast episode, Michael discusses the ethic of brahmacharya. Brahmacharya literally translated means to live like Brahma, the creator God. It means acceleration and to have pistons fire and to build cities and make art and neighbours and architecture and grow things. It’s to live like brahma which is to take creative energy and to do something with it. That’s why Thich Nhat Hahn’s encoura...

In this podcast episode, Michael explores the ethic of not stealing (asteya). Dogen, a wonderful Zen master, translates it this way: “The self and things of the world are just as they are. The gate of freedom is open.” This ethic is about being satisfied with what I have. Another way you could translate this is: not taking what’s not given freely. Recorded in 2011.

In this podcast episode, Michael discusses the ethic of honesty (satya). In the practice of satya, we become honesty, it arises out of the real-time situations of our loves and livings. The deepest value of practice comes through our commitment to honesty. If you look at non-violence or greed, it’s hard to enter those principles unless there’s honesty at the base. Recorded in 2011.

In this podcast episode, Michael discusses the relationship in our daily lives between form and formlessness. Wisdom is not separate from who we are. It’s like beads rolling on a tray: sudden, ready, uninhibited. Recorded in 2008.

Michael interviews Simone Moir, Registered Psychotherapist, on the precept of aparigraha (non-greed) and the practice of generosity. They discuss what comes up around possessiveness, addiction and obsession, embracing impermanence, the importance of relationship and knowing the importance of boundaries.